Unmanned photographic flightsby the three Lunar Orbiter spacecraft gave scientists more infor-mation about Earth's neighborthan has been obtained in the lasthalf century of studying the moon with telescopes. But one photograph beamed back from space by Lunar
Orbiter has raised new questions. On Nov. 22, the National Aero-nautics and Space Administrationreleased a copy of a Lunar Orbiter

2 picture which newsmen promptly dubbed "the photo of the spires."The photo showed the familiardimpled lunar surface, but also re-vealed seven distinct shadowsstretching out from surface pro-tuberances or monolith structures. The picture was from Orbiter' Primary Site 4, near the westernedge of the dry Sea of Tranquility. The largest of the shadows was

the kind the Washington Monument would throw either early in the
morning or late in the afternoon. Estimates placed the height of the tallest
spire at 70 feet. The smaller shadows looked as if they were cast by something
about the size of a large Christmas tree.

· Natural Phenomena Cited

Most of the experts could not remember having seen anything
like it before on the moon, but whatever the 'spires" were, it was agreed
they were natural phenomena, most likely rock outcrops or large fragments
deposited by meteor impact. As did most persons, William Blair of Seattle first
saw the "photo of the spires" in his newspaper. But in Blair, an anthropologist
in Boeing's biotechnology unit, it struck a nostalgic note. More than a
decade ago he had specialized in physical anthropology and archeology,
and the spires in the photo him of years he spent surveying and test-trenching
mounds, depressions and rock structures. Using aerial survey maps to determine possible prehistoric
archeological sites in the Great Basin of the arid West and the Great southwest,
Blair would look for a geometric patterns in certain earth's structures.
"Except for primitive, nomadic peoples," Blair explained, "man tends to
construct single and multiple structures in geometric forms.". Analysis Conducted

Mostly as an exercise to see whether he still had his
touch, Blair took the spires photo, and with a compass and protractor conducted
what he called 'a limited and highly speculative analysis of suspect coordinate
relalionships . . ." If the spires were the result of geophysical events
or forces, Blair reasoned, one would expect to find them distributed randomly.
Triangulation should produce irregular triangles. Instead, Blair's
triangles included a basic x, y and z right angle coordinate system, six
isosceles triangles and two axes consisting of three points each. Also included in his "geometric speculations" is what
appears to be a large rectangular shaped depression or "pit" directly west
of the largest spire. The shadow cast by this depression, Blair pointed
out, seems to indicate four 90-degree angles and somewhat resembles the
profile of a pit structure, the walls of which have subsequently eroded
or sloughed inward. Is Blair suggesting that the 'spires" may have been
the work of transitory intelligence, possibly for celestial observation,
navigation or communications? "Whoa! Do you want them to put me away?" Blair objected.
"But I will say this. If such a complex of structures were photographed
on Earth, the archeologist's first order of business would be to inspect
and excavate test trenches and thus validate whether the prospective site
has archeological significance."

· Geophysical Event Suspected

Blair won't find many takers for his hypothesis among
physical and scientists. Dr. Richard W. Shorthill of the Boeing Scientific
Research Laboratories sides with the majority of scientists who believe
the spires in the Lunar Orbiter photo are the result of some geophysical
event. Dr. Shorthill probably knows the features of the moon's
near side better than most persons know the topography of their own counties.
With his colleague, John M. Saari, he has investigated irregular temperatures
on the moon for several years and has compiled maps of so-called lunar
"hot spots." Dr. Shorthill doubts that the moon bumps are spires
at all but rather modest-sized pieces of rock, perhaps chunks from the
moon caused by meteors smashing into the lunar surface. "These rocks, if that's what they are, are resting
on a local surface which was tilting away from the sun when the photograph
was taken," Dr. Shorthill said. "That accounts for the long shadows."

· Comparison Made

Explaining the phenomenon, he likened the rocks on the inclined surface
to trees growing on the steep slope of a mountain. When the sun comes up
over the mountain, he added, the shadows cast by the trees are quite long. How does he account for Blair's regular geometric patterns? "There are many of these rocks on the moon's surface,"
Dr. Shorthill said, "You can see them in the Copernicus photo (a Lunar
Orbiter photograph of the huge crater Copernicus). Pick some at random
and you eventually will find a group that seems to conform to some kind
of pattern."